1 8/7/86: changes to forum
2
3 7/28/86: Version 2.14
4
5 Minor bug fixes and enhancements to version 2.13 have been made. The
6 -brief and -long control arguments have been added to add_meeting and
7 remove_meeting. The -current_meeting control argument has been added
8 to remove_meeting. The -count control argument is now accepted by the
9 next_meeting active request.
10
11 The beforeref bref transaction specifier has been added. It selects
12 all transactions in the current chain before the current transaction.
13
14
15 2/8/86: Performance improvement
16
17 Several forum_ primitives have been modified to improve performance.
18
19
20 2/2/86: Expunge request fixes
21
22 An error in the forum_$expunge primitive which caused it to incorrectly
23 mark non-existent not-yet-entered transactions as seen has been
24 fixed.
25
26
27 12/22/85: Bug fixes to version 2.13
28
29 This installation fixes all reported bugs introduced in version 2.13.
30 More slight performance improvements have been made. The forum_info
31 structure passed to the forum_$forum_info now accepts
32 forum_info_version_2 as the version parameter. The version 2 structure
33 is identical to version 1, except that the removal_count element is
34 always returned as 0, saving the extensive time needed to calculate
35 this value. The number of removed attendees may be obtained from the
36 forum_$list_users call. A version number has been added to the
37 forum_meeting_list structure introduced in forum 2.13.
38
39 The -no_header control argument has been added to the write request.
40 A bug in formatted writes which caused some pages to be one line too
41 long has been fixed.
42
43
44 12/4/85: Version 2.13
45
46 This version of forum has been modified to handle meetings with many
47 expunged transactions without consuming excessive amounts of CPU time.
48 Two new entries have been added to the forum_ gate, and the transaction
49 specifier parser has been extensively reworked. The new entrypoints
50 are forum_$next_transaction and forum_$previous_transaction, and they
51 return the index of the next or previous unexpunged transaction in
52 the meeting.
53
54 The -subject control argument to the mail request has been renamed
55 -new_subject because it had been overshadowed by the -subject
56 transaction specifier control argument. The -count control argument
57 has been added to the next_meeting request. The dot '.' request has
58 been changed to notify the user if the current meeting is adjourned.
59 The -update control argument to the add_meeting request has been fixed
60 to correctly shorten link pathnames to version 2 meetings. The apply
61 request has been fixed so that it will no longer turn unprocessed
62 chairman messages into unprocessed transactions.
63
64
65 The changed meeting list created by the check_meetings request has been
66 made available to external programs by the addition of the
67 forum_data_$meeting_list variable, which points to the structure
68 defined in forum_meeting_list.incl.pl1. The list_meetings request
69 will always calculate 'new' the same as appears in the meeting banner.
70 It has also been changed to eliminate duplicates BEFORE call the
71 forum_$forum_info entrypoint.
72
73 The forum_$set_switch and forum_$set_switch_idx entries have been
74 changed to validate their arguments in an order which leads to more
75 understandable error messages. They have also been changed to allow
76 a non-participant to set the storage system safety switch on a meeting.
77 As a consequence, the Multics extended object software will no longer
78 be able to access the per-attendee switches such as the notify switch.
79
80
81 4/4/85: Bug fixes to version 2.12
82
83 Forum now limits the size of its user-ring storage. This should
84 prevent most process directory RQO's caused by forum when reading large
85 meetings. A bug which caused transactions to be printed without blank
86 lines between them has been fixed. forum_create will now return the
87 correct error code when given an invalid meeting name. In a meeting
88 where no transactions have been seen, the "current" and "next"
89 transaction specifiers will once again both refer to the first
90 transaction.
91
92 The "last_seen" "ls" sort type has been added to list_users. The
93 -before control argument has been added to list_meetings.
94
95
96 3/31/85: Version 2.12
97
98 Two new requests, rechain and unchain, have been added to allow meeting
99 chairman to alter transaction chaining information. This allows simple
100 mistakes like replying to the wrong transaction to be fixed without
101 deleting and re-entering the errant transaction. The calculation of
102 the "highest seen" transaction has been improved and should take
103 less time for certain pathological cases.
104
105 The -trailer_format control argument has been added to the forum
106 command and to the print and write requests. The -format option
107 of the write request will now correctly paginate transactions
108 containing form-feeds and/or multi-line subjects. The list request
109 will now denote deleted transactions with an exclamation point.
110 The trailer for the unprocessed transaction will show the transaction
111 being replied to as the pref.
112
113
114 The -no_notify control argument has been added to the list_users
115 request and the forum_list_users command. The -eligible option
116 to the list_users request will now work correctly on certain
117 combinations of meeting access on version 1 meetings. The
118 announce_meeting request has been changed to query the user;
119 a -force has been added to override this behavior.
120
121 The v2_* synonyms for forum commands have been removed. Forum has been
122 changed to use the "goto" request to enter the meeting specified on the
123 forum command line so that abbreviations for "goto" will be expanded.
124 The new date_time facility is used everywhere except for the list
125 request. The "dont_compress" option to format_document_ is no longer
126 being used by forum filling.
127
128
129 Chairman access to the meeting will now allow you to set the meeting
130 ACL. The replace_acl primitive has been changed to ensure that the
131 *.*.* ACL is not removed. The detection of deleting an open meeting
132 has been improved. The expunge request will now mark expunged
133 transactions as seen. This will make meeting storage more efficient
134 and should shorten the time needed to calculate specifiers such
135 as first_unseen. A writearound for an obscure bug causing faults when
136 reading large numbers of transactions has been added. The error
137 message produced by an RQO during an expunge has been improved.
138
139
140 11/10/84: The -update option to the add_meeting request will now
141 update links even if the version 1 meeting still exists. A bug
142 introduced in version 2.11 convert_forum by the auditor has been
143 fixed.
144
145
146 08/05/84: Version 2.11: More bug fixes and minor improvements.
147
148 Changed the mail request to not require the -to control argument
149 because of an incompatible change in the behavior of addresses like
150 "-to -log". Added a new header to forum mail which gives the date_time
151 that the transaction was entered. Fixed a bug in the mail request's
152 cleanup handler. Made add_meeting always get the primary name. Stopped
153 the write request from prepending unnecessary form feeds.
154
155 Added the -output_line_length and -input_line_length control arguments
156 to the forum command for users who like different line lengths for each
157 case. The -line_length control argument sets both defaults. Added the
158 -line_length control argument to the talk, reply, list, and print
159 requests.
160
161
162 Added the -chairman control argument to the add_participant,
163 add_project, and make_public requests and the associated commands.
164 This gives chairman access for version 2 meetings. Changed list_users
165 to allow the specification of deleted transactions with -seen. Fixed a
166 bug which caused list_meetings -inhibit_error to be inconsistent in its
167 determination of when to print error messages. Changed list_meetings
168 -changes and check_meetings to ignore adjourned meetings. Changed the
169 internal subroutine which locates meetings to report correct error
170 messages when the last path in the forum search list is a segment
171 rather than a directory. Changed add_meeting to not lose with
172 long_meeting_name.control.forum. Made forum_admin work with version 1
173 meetings. Set the option telling format document to not wrap indented
174 lines.
175
176
177 04/22/84: Version 2.10: Miscellaneous fixes.
178
179 forum_add_meeting was fixed so that when invoked on a transactions
180 which is not a valid meeting announcement, it will report so and return
181 to command level instead of attempting to parse the non-announcement
182 and losing.
183
184 A bug has been fixed whereby entering a transaction in a different
185 meeting from the one being attended could cause the transaction to be
186 mis-chained.
187
188 forum_mailer_ has been modified for the EXL mail system calling
189 sequence.
190
191 ***NOTE YOU MUST NOW USE THE EXL MAIL SYSTEM TO WIN***.
192
193
194 The add_participant, add_project, remove_participant, remove_project,
195 make_public, and unmake_public commands have been modified to operate
196 on V2 forums. This is to allow the installation of V2 forum in >unb
197 without depending upon the installation of the correct version of the
198 xobj software which was previously depended upon to provide this
199 functionality.
200
201
202 04/11/84: Version 2.9: Ring 2 fixes.
203
204 Two bugs in forum_conversion_ were fixed. The first bug resulted in
205 some of the per meetings flags not getting correctly copied to the new
206 meeting. The second bug resulted in the Attendee B-tree not being
207 properly balanced A condition which is correctable via an "expunge" of
208 the meeting.
209
210 Two bugs were fixed in forum_space_mgr_. The first bug would cause an
211 ungraceful exit of ring 2 forum when a meetings Transactions segment
212 filled up. The fix will cause a proper error code to be returned. A
213 future enhancement will allow multiple Transactions segments, but not
214 yet... The second bug was in the computation of the "seen" bit maps.
215
216
217 03/15/84: Version 2.8: Minor bugfixes.
218
219 A bug in calculating the length of a v1 subject introduced in version
220 2.7 has been fixed. This bug was responsible for the extra blank line
221 between the subject and text of a transaction.
222
223 Forum exec_coms are now found via the "exec_com" search path.
224 Previously no search path was used this was an error and a forum exec
225 com had to exist either in your working directory, or be invoked via
226 explicit pathname.
227
228
229 03/14/84: Version 2.7: Many user ring changes and bug fixes.
230
231 Person_ids will no longer be accepted as transaction specifiers. The
232 -from control argument must be used. This resolves problems with
233 confusing error messages. The subject request will now work as an
234 active request, and will not fault when given an argument greater than
235 512 characters long. The forum_list_users command will now correctly
236 process the -seen control argument. Problems in formatting output for
237 meetings with more than 10000 transactions have been fixed. The apply,
238 ted, and qedx requests will no longer create transactions if there is
239 no current meeting. Several requests that take numeric arguments
240 will now report a correct error message when given non-numeric
241 arguments where numbers are expected. The rref request will report
242 the correct error message if there are no more transactions in the
243 given chain. Reply -meeting will now work again.
244
245
246 The forum_create command will not remove chairman access if the user
247 specifies himself as a participant. Overlength subjects will now be
248 formatted by the print and write requests. add_meeting will now
249 work on meeting announcements for meetings with embedded whitespace in
250 their names. It will also no longer look at or create hd>meetings
251 if it doesn't have to. If it does create hd>meetings, it will inform
252 the user of that fact.
253
254 The switch_on and switch_off requests will no give a usage message
255 where appropriate. The add_meeting request will now replace null
256 links and update link paths where appropriate. The announce_meeting
257 request will now always get the primary name in the subject instead
258 of being subject to the whims of the pathname associative memory.
259
260
261 The write request has been changed to require a transaction specifier.
262 With no arguments, it will issue a usage message. The -reply_to
263 control argument has been added to the mail request. The -cmtg control
264 argument has been added to the add_meeting request. The
265 -enter_description -eds control argument has been added to the
266 announce_meeting request. Added the announcement_info ai request to
267 extract information from meeting announcements. The aref, fref, lref,
268 pref, and rref requests now accept 'unproc' as an argument. The
269 forum_check_meetings fckm command has been added.
270
271
272 8/12/83: Added the get_uid_file entrypoint to forum_ for use by the
273 new mail system software. Calling sequence is identical with
274 hcs_$get_uid_file. Added the -force and -no_force control arguments
275 to add_meeting to add the link even if the caller is not eligible.
276 Changed the definition of new to mean "all transactions entered
277 by participants other than yourself that were entered since the last
278 transaction you have seen that was entered by another participant."
279
280
281 8/8/83: Added the -long_subject control argument to the list request.
282 This argument prevents truncation of transaction subjects. Added the
283 -include_deleted, -only_deleted, and -only_non_deleted control
284 arguments to list_users. These only work on version 2 meetings. Added
285 the -auto_write and -no_auto_write control arguments to the qedx, talk,
286 ted, and reply requests and the forum command to control whether the
287 "w" request is necessary in the editor.
288
289
290 7/25/83: Fixed a locking bug in the salvager expunge request. Changed
291 forum_open_mgr_ to allow you to close the meeting if you have been denied
292 access to the meeting while you had it open. Made the announce_meeting
293 request print a message saying that the announcement was successfully
294 entered. Change add_meeting to not abort the request line if it was
295 unable to add names to a link. Fixed reply -meeting to not assume that
296 the meeting is version 2.
297
298
299 6/30/83: Made the specifier requests which take arguments be able to take
300 other specifiers as arguments. For example, "aref last" now works.
301 Added the -update -ud control argument to add_meeting to aid in converting
302 meeting links from version 1 meetings to links to version 2 meetings if
303 the meeting has been converted. Added the -all control argument to the
304 next_meeting request to list all meetings that were selected by the last
305 check_meetings request.
306
307 Added the -names_only, -participating, -no_participating, -after,
308 -before, -ascending, and -descending control arguments to list_users.
309 Fixed meeting eligibility messages. They didn't work at all for
310 version 1 meetings and were usually incorrect for version 2 meetings.
311
312
313 Version 2 Forum meetings now support the safety switch. This may be
314 turned on by the chairman with either the switch_on forum request or
315 the switch_on command.
316
317
318 6/8/83: Added the -check control argument to the remove_meeting
319 request. This lists the links that remove_meeting -cleanup would delete.
320 Made the add_meeting request make the user a participant in the meeting
321 along with creating the link. Made the current_meeting request only
322 return the meeting suffix if the -absp control argument is given.
323
324
325 6/6/83: Installed updated copy of forum_trans_specs_ which was omitted
326 in yesterday's installation. add_meeting should work again. Changed
327 add_meeting to link to the actual meeting when the announcement gives a
328 pathname which is a link. Added the -list control argument to the
329 next_meeting request.
330
331 Added -return_on_error -roe and -no_return_on_error -nroe to the
332 goto request to control what happens when the new meeting does not
333 exist. Made the '.' request say whether or not abbrev expansion is
334 enabled.
335
336
337 6/5/83: Added the add_meeting am, remove_meeting rm, and
338 announce_meeting anm requests, and the forum_add_meeting fam and
339 forum_remove_meeting frm commands. These are used to manage the user's
340 private meetings directory by adding and removing links to meetings.
341 The announce_meeting request creates a transaction containing
342 information about the current meeting and enters it in another meeting.
343 These announcements can be used by the add_meeting request to add a
344 meeting to the search list. The forum_create command was changed to
345 create an announcement upon request.
346
347 The suffix_forum_ module was moved into bound_v2_forum_. A minor bug
348 in the check_meetings request which caused it to print a warning twice
349 has been fixed.
350
351
352 6/2/83: Added the check_meetings ckm and next_meeting nm requests
353 which may be used to step through changed meetings. Changed the default
354 behavior of the write request to be the same as the print request:
355 write the unprocessed transaction if there is one, otherwise the
356 current one.
357
358
359 4/13/83: Changed the rref transaction specifier to not include the
360 current transaction. Fixed the chairman request table to show the talk
361 request in the output of the list_help and ? requests. Fixed an
362 off-by-one error in computing the maximum subject length in the list
363 request. Fixed invocation of ted through terminating input with \f to
364 ensure that the initial request passed to ted ends with a new line.
365
366
367 3/26/83: Fixed the RQO handler in forum_trans_mgr_ to handle the case
368 where the RQO is taken on the control segment. Made transaction
369 entering a little more atomic. Fixed a typo in the usage message for
370 the add_project request.
371
372
373 3/18/83: Added the -output_file, -inhibit_error and -no_inhibit_error
374 control arguments to the list request. The -no_inhibit_error control
375 argument is only valid when list is invoked as an active function, and
376 causes that request to not complain if no transactions are selected.
377 Added the synonyms -ud and -nud to the -update and -no_update control
378 arguments, respectively. Added the -fill and -no_fill control
379 arguments to the apply request. Upgraded the apply request to work on
380 existing transactions.
381
382
383 The list_meetings request will now correctly eliminate duplicate
384 meetings even if you are not eligible. If -no_inhibit_error is
385 specified, null links to meetings will be diagnosed as errors.
386 Columnation problems when specifying any two of -verbose, -absp, and
387 -count have been fixed. Specifiying both the -separator and -formatted
388 control arguments to the write request will now always be diagnosed as
389 an error. A typo in an error message in the switch_on/switch_off
390 requests has been fixed.
391
392
393 2/5/83: Incompatibly changed the ted request to require the write
394 request to be given in order to save editing changes. The quit
395 request will ask if the user really wants to quit when there
396 are modified buffers. The list_users active function was changed
397 to reject the -eligible control argument.
398
399
400 1/29/83: Replaced forum_editor_ dqed by calls to qedx_. This
401 is an incompatible change. From now on, the write request must
402 be given in order to save editing changes. The quit request
403 will ask if the user really wants to quit when there are modified
404 buffers. Type "help qedx" from inside forum for more information.
405
406 The -fill and -no_fill control arguments have been added to the qedx
407 and ted requests to control whether or not the transaction will be
408 refilled upon exit from the editor.
409
410
411 1/19/83 Version 2 forum: The entire inner-ring portion of forum has
412 been rewritten, and the format of meetings has been changed
413 incompatibly. Version 2 meetings are directories with a suffix of
414 ".forum". A new command, convert_forum, has been provided to convert
415 version 1 meetings to version 2 meetings.
416
417
418 Meeting access:
419 Access to forum meetings is controlled by extended acls. There
420 are three modes: read, write, and chairman. As of now, these ACL's are
421 only set by the forum_create and convert_forum commands. They may be
422 listed by the list_users -eligible request. The forum_add_participant,
423 forum_add_project, forum_remove_participant, forum_remove_project,
424 forum_make_public, forum_unmake_public, and associated requests have
425 been removed. In the near future, there should be standard Multics
426 set_extended_acl, list_extended_acl, and delete_extended_acl commands
427 which may be used to manipulate the access to meetings.
428
429
430 New seen switch:
431 Transactions may now be marked as either seen or unseen. A transaction
432 is marked as seen by the print and write requests, and the seen switch
433 may be explicitly manipulated with the switch_on and switch_off
434 requests. Transactions are also marked as seen by their author when
435 they are entered. Ten new transaction specifiers and requests have been
436 added to utilize the seen switch. They are: seen, first_seen,
437 last_seen, next_seen, previous_seen, unseen, first_unseen, last_unseen,
438 next_unseen, and previous_unseen.
439
440
441 Bug fixes and improvements:
442 Several improvements to the forum subsystem have been made. The
443 -seen and -unseen control arguments to the list_users request now
444 take a transaction specifier instead of only a transaction number.
445 The subject request will now concatenate its arguments instead of
446 requiring the new subject to be quoted. The qedx request and
447 entering \f when typing transactions will now use the standard
448 qedx editor instead of a bound-in editor.
449
450
451 12/31/82: Fixed a bug in forum_create which caused it to not add the
452 short name to the meeting. Corrected forum_list_meetings to report the
453 correct pathname in certain error messages. Changed the print request
454 to put " more" on the transaction footer if there are more
455 transactions in the same chain. When going to a meeting for the first
456 time, the first transaction will now be considered to be new. Added
457 the -format -fmt, -no_format -nfmt, and -page_length -pl control
458 arguments to the write request. Capitalized the word "Subject" in the
459 output of the dot request.
460
461
462 12/16/82: Fixed a bug in management of the user-ring transaction
463 cache, and a bug causing faults in the list request on terminals with
464 line_length set to less than 72.
465
466
467 12/11/82: Version 1.10: This version contains bug fixes and new
468 features including inprovements to transaction specification,
469 user deletion of their own transactions, and the addition of several
470 new requests.
471
472
473 The -from User_id control argument has been added to transaction
474 selection. It should be used instead of specifying the User_id by
475 itself. Selection by date is now available with the addition of the
476 -after -af, -after_time -aft, -before -be, -before_time -bet,
477 -between -bt, -between_time -btt, and -date -dt control
478 arguments. A -by_chain control argument has been added to the list,
479 print, and write requests to sort the selected transactions by
480 transaction chains. A new transaction specifier, "highest" or
481 "last_seen" has been added. It refers to the highest-numbered
482 transaction that has been printed or written.
483
484
485 The exec_com request has been added. Forum searches the "exec_com"
486 search list for segments with the "fmec" suffix. Forum will look for
487 and execute a start_up.fmec exec_com. The -no_start_up control
488 argument has been added to the forum command to disable this. The
489 access controlling commands have been made available as requests.
490 These are add_participant apt, add_project apj, remove_participant
491 rpt, remove_project rpj, make_public mp, and unmake_public ump.
492 Any user with modify permission on the containing directory may now
493 delete a meeting. The delete_forum entry has been moved from
494 forum_chairman_ to forum_. The forum_chairman_ entries forum_add
495 delete_name have been replaced with chname_forum and chname_forum_idx.
496
497
498 All participants are now able to delete and retrieve transactions
499 entered by themselves, except that a participant may not retrieve a
500 transaction that the chairman has deleted. The -include_deleted -idl,
501 -only_deleted -odl, and -only_non_deleted -ondl control arguments
502 have been added to the list, print, and write requests.
503
504 Meetings may now be adjourned by the chairman. An "adjourned" switch
505 may be manipulated by the switch_on/switch_off requests and by the
506 forum_admin command. When a meeting is adjourned, only the chairman may
507 attend. The control arguments -adjourned -adj and -no_adjourned
508 -nadj have been added to list_meetings.
509
510
511 The meeting_name argument to flsu is no longer positional. The -sort
512 and -project control arguments were added to list_users. The output of
513 list_users may now be sorted by time last attended as well as by name.
514 The output of list_users -eligible is not sorted alphabetically. The
515 -new and -next control arguments have been added to the reset request.
516 The list request now takes the -brief -bf/-long -lg control
517 arguments, the brief form omits the date and the project of the author.
518 The print request will now issue a "reset_more" control order between
519 transactions.
520
521
522 The standard ssu_ request table is now used to make
523 forum_request_tables_ shorter. The initial request table has been
524 removed. The request table in effect when there is no current meeting
525 is the same as the request table when the user is attending a meeting
526 he does not chair. This is a substantial performance improvement.
527
528 Error messages involving invalid regular expressions in transaction
529 specifiers have been improved. A bug in the specifier parser which
530 caused it to loop has been fixed. Forum_list_meetings
531 -absolute_pathname has been fixed to print the real path name, not the
532 pathname of the link used to find the meeting. A bug which prevented
533 the -line_length control argument to the forum command from being
534 effective has been fixed. The error message given when a requested
535 transaction has been expunged has been changed to say "expunged"
536 instead of "garbage-collected."
537
538
539 8/21/82: Forum will now not allow anonymous users to chair meetings and
540 will mark transactions entered by anonymous users by prepending an asterisk
541 "*" to the user_id given in the header. When a meeting is created or
542 renamed, forum will make sure that the new names are valid entry names,
543 i.e. they do not contain things like adjacent periods.
544
545 flsm has been fixed to report error if a meeting explicitly
546 mentioned on the command/request line was not found. The write request will
547 quote the name of the output file in the vfile_ attach description in
548 case the name contains a space.
549
550
551 7/28/82: Bugs involving incorrect access to the notifications database
552 have been fixed. Users running at AIM levels other than system_low
553 will no longer crawlout when accessing this database. Requests which
554 enter transactions will now differentiate errors which occurred while
555 entering the transaction from errors which occurred while sending
556 notifications and correctly report that the transaction was entered in
557 the former case.
558
559 7/20/82: A bug in meeting selection in flsm has been fixed. A bug in
560 management of the user-ring transaction cache which could occasionally
561 cause looping has been fixed.
562
563
564 7/6/82: The -brief control argument has been added to f/lsu to suppress
565 the "No participants were selected." error message. The default search
566 path has been changed so that >udd>user project>user name>meetings
567 comes before forum_dir. The error which caused the text of a transaction
568 being entered with -no_fill to occasionally be discarded has been fixed.
569 A bug in flsm which caused it to print the "p" flag on meetings that the
570 user had not attended has been fixed. A typo in a dlpt/rtpt error message
571 has been corrected.
572
573
574 6/28/82 Version 1.9: A bug in forum_admin access-setting has been fixed.
575 Bugs in flsm/flsu standalone subsystem creation have been fixed.
576 The forum_get_search_path_ routine has been deleted, forum will no
577 longer attempt to use the continuum search path if it is different from
578 the forum search path. The obsolete set_notify_on off and
579 set_participate_on off requests have been removed. The unused
580 listening and talking switches have been removed.
581
582 Garbage collection has been added. Three new chairman requests have
583 been added. delete_participant logically removes participants from a
584 meeting, retrieve_participant restores them, and expunge physically
585 removes deleted transactions and participants from a meeting.
586
587
588 The directory >udd>user project>user name>meetings has been added
589 to the default "forum" search path. The "goto" request will now be
590 able to find meetings even if the user lacks "s" access on the
591 containing directory. The list request has been changed to work as an
592 active request which returns a list of transaction numbers.
593 forum_admin change_chairman will now tell you who the old chairman was.
594 The frpt command will now turn off a user's "participating" switch.
595 All transaction filling is now done with format_document_. The bug
596 which prevented transactions entered with -if from being filled
597 has been fixed.
598
599
600 6/04/82: The control arguments -no_changes, -no_notify, and
601 -no_participating have been added to the forum_list_meetings command
602 and the list_meetings request. The following bugs introduced in
603 version 1.8 have been fixed: swf mtg_emsg will now work correctly,
604 flsu will give the correct error message if no meeting_name is
605 specified, and the chairman_message transaction specifier will be
606 recognized.
607
608
609 05/21/82: Version 1.8: There have been several changes in the usage of
610 the chairman messages. Now they will be printed on meeting entry the
611 first time after they have changed and the first time a talk or
612 reply is done in a meeting. A new transaction specifier,
613 "chairman_message" "cmsg", has been added. It may be used with the
614 print, write, and delete requests. The -delete control argument to the
615 set_message command has been removed.
616
617 The forum_create command will now ask if the chairman wants to set the
618 chairman message. Projects and participants may now be added with the
619 -read_only argument in the forum_create dialogue.
620
621
622 Forum can now optionally print messages describing meeting eligibility
623 on meeting entry and a message warning users that access to the meeting
624 has changed since the last time they attended. Printing of these messages
625 can be manipulated for all meetings on a particular site by using the
626 new switch_on swn/switch_off swf keyword of the forum_admin command
627 to set the "print_eligibility_messages pemsg",
628 "chairman_set_eligibility_msg cm_set_emsg", and
629 "meeting_eligibility_messages mtg_emsg" keywords. Chairman can manipulate
630 eligibility messages for a single meeting by setting the "mtg_emsg" switch
631 provided it doesn't conflict with the site policy.
632
633
634 The set_notify_on, set_notify_off, set_participate_on, and
635 set_participate_off requests have been replaced by the new switch_on and
636 switch_off requests. They will remain functional, but will be
637 undocumented.
638
639
640 05/10/82 No new version: Recompiled forum_list_meetings.pl1 and
641 forum_mgr_.pl1 after fixing a bug in forum_info.incl.pl1. Added
642 forum_mgr_tv_ to bound_forum_mgr_ to avoid installation windows. Fixed
643 several places which referenced forum_ instead of forum_chairman_.
644
645
646 05/06/82 Version 1.7: Several bugs were fixed. The input requests will
647 no longer tell users to type "enter" if both -rql and -input_file were
648 used. Notifications will be sent even if the user is not accepting
649 messages. The forum_admin command will now force write access on the
650 control segment.
651
652 Forum now supports read-only participation in meetings. The -read_only
653 control argument has been added to the forum_add_participant,
654 forum_add_project and forum_make_public commands. The forum_list_meetings
655 and forum_list_users commands/requests accept the -read_only and
656 -no_read_only control arguments to select/exclude read only
657 participants.
658
659
660 Forum will no longer print a prompt after a null input line. The forum_priv_
661 gate has been renamed forum_admin_. The short names "f", "c", and "l" have
662 been added to the first, current, and last requests respectively.
663
664 Forum_trans_specs_ will reject person_ids containing '*' or '.'. The control
665 argument parsing in forum_list_users has been improved.
666
667 The forum_remove_participant command has been changed to not allow the chairman
668 to delete his access.
669
670
671 04/03/82 Version 1.6: The dot request has been changed to give the name
672 of the meeting the unprocessed transaction will be entered in if it is
673 different then the current meeting. All commands in forum_create.pl1
674 have been changed to call meetings "meetings". They were forgotten in
675 version 1.5. A bug which caused transactions to get entered in the
676 wrong meetings has been fixed. Many declarations were cleaned up.
677
678
679 03/29/82 Version 1.5: Forum has been changed to call meetings "meetings"
680 once again. The forum_list command has been renamed
681 "forum_list_meetings flsm". The forum_list request has been renamed
682 "list_meetings lsm". The forum command and all requests that took the
683 "-forum" control argument now take "-meeting -mtg". The
684 current_meeting cmtg request has returned in place of "current_forum".
685
686 Notifications have been changed to use a global database. This will make
687 use of the fant/frnt commands very inexpensive.
688
689 If a user has no "forum" search path, or if it is the default search
690 path, forum will use the "continuum" search path if it exists and is
691 different from the default. A warning message will be printed.
692
693
694 The forum_admin command and the forum_priv_ gate have been added to
695 permit the manipulation of meetings by priviliged persons other than
696 the chairman.
697
698 A bug causing faults while trying to retrieve transactions which were not
699 deleted has been fixed. A bug in the request table which prevented
700 list_users from being called as an active request has been fixed.
701
702 An rqo handler has been added to ring-3 forum. The forum_delete
703 command will now use the "forum" search path, as is documented. A typo
704 in an flsu error message has been corrected.
705
706
707 03/20/82 Version 1.4: A bug in the -brief argument to the write request
708 has been fixed. A bug causing faults in the fant/frnt cleanup handler
709 has been fixed. A size condition handler has been added to list_users
710 so it will not fault on broken forums like 'eve' on System M. This
711 will be removed when garbage collection is added.
712
713 The -quit argument to the forum command will now quit unconditionally,
714 even if the initial request line was aborted.
715
716 The notification scheme has been redone using lock_id's instead of
717 event channels. This will fix problems with emacs-forum-mode.
718
719
720 03/16/82 Version 1.3: The bug which caused forum to not print the last
721 character of the forum name when printing transactions has been fixed.
722
723
724 03/14/82 Version 1.2: Several bugs in the set_message request have
725 been fixed. A bug which caused forum to incorrectly tell users that
726 they were the chairman has been fixed. The -chairman argument to the
727 forum_list command/request will work even if a person_id is not given.
728 The eligible flag will once again be printed if -all is used.
729
730 The output produced by the -eligible control argument to the
731 forum_list_users command/request has been made more concise,
732 clearer, and neater.
733
734
735 03/01/82 Version 1.1: Forum has been updated to reflect changes in
736 the subsystem utilities, ssu_. The ssu_-supplied requests answer, if,
737 ready, ready_on, ready_off, subsystem_name, and subsystem_version
738 have been added.
739
740 The notifications mechanism has been changed to improve efficiency. In
741 order to receive notifications of new transactions, the new command
742 forum_accept_notifications fant must be invoked in the process in
743 addition to having the notify flag set. There is also a
744 forum_refuse_notifications frnt command.
745
746 The set_message request has been added to allow chairman to set a
747 message which will be printed when the forum is entered and when
748 transactions are entered.
749
750
751 Input filling has been turned on by default. The -totals -tt and
752 -eligible -elig control arguments have been added to the list_users
753 request and the forum_list_users command. The -brief, -long,
754 -separator -sep and -no_separator -nosep control arguments have
755 been added to the write request.
756
757 Several bugs involving use of the ":" in specifiers have been fixed.
758 Several bugs in the output formatting of forum_list have been fixed.
759 This command will no longer initiate the proceedings of the forum,
760 resulting in improved performance. forum_create has been changed to do
761 more error-checking and to use the explanation feature of
762 command_query_.
763
764
765 The -inhibit_error argument to the forum_list command/request is now
766 the default. The talk and reply requests have been modified to make
767 -rql the default if -input_file is specified.
768
769 The undocumented behavior of replying to a transaction by entering its
770 transaction index as a response to the "Subject: " prompt of the talk
771 request has been removed.
772
773
774 01/24/82 Version 1.0: Continuum has been renamed to be forum. All
775 commands have been renamed: con_list_meetings is now forum_list
776 fls, con_list_users is now forum_list_users flsu, con_meeting_dir
777 is now forum_dir fd, create_con_meeting is now forum_create,
778 delete_con_meeting is now forum_delete, and the access commands have
779 had "con" changed to "forum" in the long names and "c" changed to "f"
780 in the short names con_make_public cmp -> forum_make_public fmp.
781 The "forum" search path is now used to locate forums.
782
783
784 Several requests have been renamed: list_meetings is now forum_list
785 fls meeting_dir is now forum_dir fd and current_meeting has been
786 changed to current_forum cf. The short name "r" has been removed
787 from the "reset" request and the name "rs" has been added. All
788 occurrences of the control argument "-meeting" have been changed to
789 "-forum".
790
791 Several control arguments have been added to the forum_list
792 command/request. The -chairman userid -cm control argument will
793 select only those forums which are chaired by a specific user; -verbose
794 -vb will show the chairman current transaction and last transaction
795 for each forum; and -participating -part will select only those
796 meetings in which the user is a participant. This last is necessary
797 because -eligible is now the default.
798
799
800 01/17/82 Version 5.0: Continuum has been changed to use the new subsystem
801 utilities package ssu_. This will allow the use of abbrev processing of
802 request lines and better help facilities. In addition many bugs in
803 version 4 have been fixed and many new features have been added.
804
805
806 In order to support abbrev processing the -abbrev -no_abbrev and
807 -profile control arguments have been added to the continuum command and
808 an abbrev request has been added. The help request has been improved
809 to act more like the help command and a list_help lh request has been
810 added. The ? request has been changed to print a short multi-columnar
811 list of available requests. A list_requests lr request has been
812 added to perform the same function as the old ? request.
813
814 The -no_output_fill and -no_input_fill control arguments are now
815 the default. This means filling will not occur unless specifically
816 requested. The continuum command now accepts the control arguments
817 -meeting -mtg <meeting_name and -list -ls transaction_specifier.
818 The goto request accepts the -meeting -mtg meeting_name control
819 argument.
820
821
822 A -set control argument has been added to the chairman request to allow
823 the chairman of a meeting to be changed. The con_meeting_dir request
824 has been renamed meeting_dir md. The command will continue to be
825 con_meeting_dir cmd.
826
827 The list request has been changed to update the current transaction index
828 if the current transaction is not in the group listed. This behavior may be
829 controlled with the new control arguments -update and -no_update. -update is
830 the default.
831
832 A -initial control argument has been added to the list, print, and
833 write requests. This argument selects only those transactions which are
834 at the beginning of transaction chains. A -line_length control argument
835 has been added to the write request.
836
837
838 The delete request may now be used to destroy the unprocessed transaction.
839 The print request will print the unprocessed transaction, if there is one,
840 when given no arguments. The usage message printed by the write request
841 when invoked with no arguments has been done away with.
842
843 The definition of the rest_ref transaction specifier has been changed
844 so that it no longer includes the current transaction. The null regexp "//"
845 may now be used to mean the last regexp used.
846
847 The con_list_users command and the list_users request now take
848 -seen and -unseen control arguments which will only list those
849 participants who have not seen the specified transaction. The
850 current_meeting request accepts the control arguments -entry -et and
851 -absolute_pathname -absp. -entry is the default.
852
853
854 The write request has been fixed so that it will no longer attempt to
855 close the switch user_output. The retrieve request will no longer refuse to
856 retrieve transactions because they have been deleted. Use of the -user Foo
857 control argument to list_users will no longer list users with
858 personids of the form AFoo. The ted request will no longer take faults.
859
860 Several problems connected with the use of the -meeting control
861 argument have been fixed. This control argument will now work with
862 the talk and reply requests. When used with the list, print, or write
863 request, it will no longer claim that there is no current transaction
864 or attempt to use the current transaction of the current meeting. If
865 the meeting name following -meeting does not exist, continuum will now
866 properly clean up, avoiding problems such as the error "Specified index
867 does not correspond to a valid meeting."
868
869
870 The set_participate_on off and set_notify_on off requests will no
871 longer add phantom entries to a meeting if the personid given after the
872 -user control argument is not a participant in the meeting.
873
874 Participants who were left in the 'attending' state because of system
875 crashes or fatal process errors will no longer be shown as still
876 attending the meeting by con_list_users.
877
878 The con_list_users command and the list_users request have been changed
879 to extract information without causing the caller to be attending the
880 meeting.
881
882 All requests which print the name of a meeting will now show the actual
883 path of the meeting, not the path of the link used to find it.
884
885
886 09/22/81 Version 4.6: All modules were recompiled for installation.
887 A bug in printing transactions containing ioa_ control characters was
888 fixed.
889
890
891 09/08/81 Version 4.5: The meeting_list mlst command has been renamed
892 con_list_meetings clsm. The meeting_list request has been renamed
893 list_meetings lsm. The old names will continue to exist for the near
894 future.
895
896 The apply request will now create an unprocessed transaction if one does
897 not exist. A typographical error in the notification of new transactions
898 has been corrected. The create_con_meeting command has been changed to
899 create meetings with ring brackets of 3,3,3.
900
901
902 07/18/81: The create_con_meeting command was changed to use 'talk' as
903 the initial request rather than 't'. The delete_con_meeting dlcm command
904 was added.
905
906
907 07/10/81 Version 4.4: The -quit control argument was added to the continuum
908 command. con_output_requests_ was changed to not truncate lines sent to
909 terminals in ^ll mode or with ll < 56 and to fill transactions to 72 columns
910 in these cases. A bug in con_trans_specs_ concerning the 'new' specifier
911 when there were no new transactions was fixed.
912
913
914 Versions 4.0 - 4.3:
915 The continuum subsystem was largely rewritten. The most important change is
916 that meetings are now pure ring 3 segments. Several improvements have been made
917 to the user interface. In most cases, they are are upward compatible.
918
919 The create_con_meeting command will now put a meeting in the working directory
920 by default, instead of the central meeting directory.
921
922 The syntax and meaning of transaction specifiers has changed. New keywords
923 were added. 'restref rref' refers to remaining transactions in the current
924 chain, and 'unproc u' refers to the transaction that has been built but not
925 entered in a meeting. All keywords except 'unproc' may be used as requests and
926 active requests which return transaction numbers. The '-subject' and '-text'
927 control arguments were added for use with regular expressions. The '-reverse'
928 control argument was added. Type 'help trans_specs' from continuum request
929 level for more information.
930
931
932 The 'name_list n' request has been renamed 'list_users lsu'. It is also
933 available as a command/active function, 'con_list_users clsu'.
934
935 Several control arguments were added to the 'meeting_list mlst' command.
936
937 The 'list' request will now list all transactions when it is given no
938 arguments.
939
940 The '-user' control argument was added to the set_notify_on off and
941 set_participate_on off to allow the chairman to set/reset these switches for
942 all users of a meeting.
943
944 A 'ted' request, which invokes the 'ted' editor if it is available, has been
945 added.
946
947
948 The '?' request has been made shorter by not documenting the transaction
949 specifier requests, not documenting more than one short name for a request, and
950 having separate request tables which do not document requests that cannot
951 currently be used, e.g. If the user is not the chairman, 'delete' will not
952 appear in the output of the '?' request.
953
954 The '..' escape to the command processor now works from the 'Subject: ' prompt.
955
956 The '-on' and '-off' control arguments were added to the 'fill' request to
957 control default filling of transactions on input.
958
959 The remainder of the input line following '\f' is now passed to the editor as
960 an initial request. Thus '\f1,$p' will enter the editor and print the current
961 text of the unprocessed transaction.